Economic Stimulus Plan

Gov. Pat Quinn met behind closed doors with legislative leaders today to talk jobs and economic growth, floating a plan that would increase the state’s earned income tax credit for low-income families and close some corporate tax loopholes. The conversation comes as Quinn and legislators try to reach an agreement to provide tax breaks for the city’s financial exchanges, which have threatened to leave the state following a major income tax increase. Republicans insist the state must embrace a more wide-ranging plan instead of giving incentives to businesses on an individual basis, while Quinn wants to protect the state’s bottom line and ease the burden on working families....

by Mark Silva At the end of the week, at the end of the day, perhaps the most extraordinary thing that played out in the political sphere of Washington was not a State of the Union address, but rather a...

by Mark Silva and updated It was nearly a year ago, in February, that President Barack Obama set out to promote his economic stimulus plans in a round of network television interviews. Instead, he found himself explaining the mistake he...

by Mark Silva At his inaugural address a little over one year ago, President Barack Obama appealed to a sense of commonality in the challenges facing Americans. "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility a...

by Mark Silva President Barack Obama, allowing that he has run into a "buzz saw,'' carried his pitch for economic revival, health-care and an agenda now threatened by political upheaval to battleground Ohio today. "We've gotten pretty far down the...

by Mark Silva Jim Greer -- and the Swamp will remember him today as the fellow who criticized President Barack Obama's back-to-school speech to students last fall as a platform for the president's "socialist ideology'' -- resigned today as...

by Mark Silva The economy was the big story of 2009. That and health care. From the start of the year, Americans have paid close attention to both an unfolding economic crisis, the Pew Research Center has found in a...

by Mark Silva Larry Summers, the president's chief economic adviser, says the shedding of jobs in an economy emerging from recession should end by Spring. "It will take time,'' Summers said in an appearance on CNN's State of the Union...

by Mark Silva As the House prepares to take the first vote Saturday on the health-care legislation that President Barack Obama is seeking by year's end, most Americans say they'd be happy with Congress taking more time to either work...

More than a third of American adults have no retirement savings, and 14% of those ages 65 and older also haven’t put money away yet, according to a new study.The low savings rate for people at or approaching retirement age is alarming, said Greg...

WASHINGTON — Arlen Specter, who in 30 years representing Pennsylvania in the Senate offended Republicans and Democrats in almost equal measure with maverick votes and a frank cockiness that finally ended his career in politics, died Sunday at his home...